Relena ran through the woods, a flashlight clutched in her hand, feeling twigs and branches brush against her bare arms. She ignored this, felt no pain. Her lungs burned with the cool night air, and goosebumps ran up and down her bare skin. She was focused, solely, on the mission at hand. Heero had to be apprehended, or he would hurt someone. Or kill. And the mission, everything she'd worked for, would be ruined.
As she ran, she wondered if she would even be able to catch up with Heero. They'd spent too much time getting to the Abbott facility, and too much time watching security footage. Heero possessed super-human speed and stamina, and there was no telling how far away he could get in the interim.
The trees thinned, and Relena came upon a clearing. Her flashlight beam swayed across the open space, and the shock of a figure standing in the center of the clearing sent Relena skidding across leaves and grass. She just managed to catch herself before completely losing her balance. Once she was stable, she raised her flashlight up again, and shone it on the figure in the center of the clearing.
It was him.
He stood, stock still, his chin angled upwards. He appeared to be staring at the sky. A crescent moon cast a minimal amount of light upon the ground, but beyond that, the stars shimmered brilliantly. Relena stood motionless for a moment, watching him, watching the stars. She wondered if he even knew she was standing just a few meters away. Before she could move again, his head turned and his blue eyes landed on her.
"You're just a woman." A smirk formed on his lips as he eyed her up and down. "Why'd they send you?" he asked with a sneer.
"I came after you myself," Relena said, feeling defensive. Heero, this version of him, didn't know about her training or Faye Oaks.
Heero scoffed. "As if you could stop me," he said. Relena glowered at him, and drew two pistols from their holsters around her hips. She trained both on Heero and continued to hold his gaze. The smirk widened. "The girl has guns."
"You need to return to the facility," Relena said. "Don't make me kill you." This time, Heero laughed, and the sound only infuriated Faye, whom Relena was still holding back, believing she could take care of the situation herself. But Relena could feel herself sinking into darkness as Faye forced her way up to the surface.
And Faye was pissed.
Without waiting for a further exchange of words, Relena leapt forward, controlled by Faye. She fired off several rounds from her pistols, but Heero easily dodged the bullets. He moved forward, too, his hands outstretched as if he were going to choke her. As Relena reached him, she brought her knee up into his gut. But it was like her knee hit a brick wall. She stumbled backwards, nearly losing her balance and her weapons. Heero laughed.
"It's their fault I'm like this," he said, spreading his hands out to indicate his body. Relena scowled at him and relaunched her attack, trying to ignore the pain in her knee. She fired a shot again, aimed as his head, but he dodged again. "You really want to kill me, don't you?" he asked, circling around, not moving to launch an assault against her.
"Not really," Relena said, feeling Faye speak for her. "All our research would be for naught."
Something flickered in Heero's eyes. Recognition. Sadness? His blue eyes narrowed into harsh slits. "Your research," he echoed. Heero launched himself forward, reaching towards her. Relena tried to fire her pistol in her right hand, but the damn thing jammed. She turned and ran, trying to outrun him into the woods. Before she could reach the trees, she heard someone call out,
"Relena!"
She skid to a halt and looked up. Trowa jumped from a high tree, twirled in the air once and landed on his feet on the ground. His sudden appearance stopped Heero from his attack, momentarily distracting him. Trowa had a large rifle swung around his back, which he grabbed and leveled at Heero.
Relena resisted the urge to yell out to Trowa, to stop him from trying to shoot Heero.
I want to be the one to bring him in, she thought desperately.
"It would be in your best interest to come with us quietly," Trowa said, his gaze on Heero, who laughed.
"Like you could stop me, Mr. Acrobat," Heero said. Trowa frowned and fired several rounds from his rifle. Relena screamed and lunged forward, pushing Heero to the ground. The two tumbled through the dirt and leaves, until they both rested on their backs, looking up at the night sky. Both pistols flew from Relena's hands and skittered across the ground.
"Well, well," Heero said beside her. Relena leapt to her feet. Faye screamed at her from inside her mind. "You just saved me."
"Relena, what are you doing?" Trowa cried out, sounding desperate.
She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know who was in control. Faye or Relena? Relena or Faye? She brought her hands up to her head and pressed against her temples, willing the conflicting voices in her head to silence.
But she lost the battle once more.
A fierce expression crossed Relena's face, and she lunged forward, her hands grabbing at Heero's arms, grappling with him, trying to gain the upper hand. But he threw her off of him, and she spun, landing hard against her shoulder on the ground. She felt something slip out of place, and pain exploded from inside her body. With a cry of pain and anger, she scrambled back to her feet.
This time, Trowa moved in, firing his rifle, but Heero dodged out of the way and circled around, faster than Trowa could keep up with. Heero landed a punch on Trowa's chest, knocking him backwards off his feet. He flew a few feet and landed in a heap on the ground, unmoving. Relena cried out once more, this time for Trowa, but she couldn't lose sight of the problem.
But she knew that Heero could get away at any time. He was too strong for them. That meant he was simply toying with them. Toying with their lives.
Relena needed to do something, but what?
She launched herself at him, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, and landed two punches to his neck, which knocked him backwards, and he lost his footing for a moment. He regained it just as quickly, and threw a punch at Relena's gut, which she barely avoided by leaping out of the way. Relena threw another punch, this time at his sternum, but once more, she felt as if she were fighting a brick wall. She felt her fingers crunch under the impact, and in that moment, knew she needed to find her weapons to bring him down.
But she was losing.
Heero punched her in her gut, and her breath wooshed from her lungs. She landed on her back, unable to breathe, gasping for air.
"Faye!"
Another voice from the trees.
"Stay down!"
Her vision swam, but she thought she saw Wufei, dressed in his white coat. He lifted a rifle and fired, this time hitting Heero in the back of the neck. But it wasn't a bullet. Before she passed out, she saw that it was a tranquilizer dart. Heero's face froze, and he slumped to the ground in a heap, landing beside Relena among the leaves and dirt.
-RGS
